Joyous Noise

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder isn't just for Shakespeare. Every summer, they also produce a couple of other plays (sometimes with a tangential connection to the Bard) in rep. This year, one of those plays is a personal favorite of mine, Noises Off by Michael Frayn.

This is not the first time I've talked about this British farce here on the blog. Four years ago, the Denver Center Theater Company staged a production of it, which I enjoyed immensely. I had just as much fun this time, though in different ways.

Noises Off is about a group of actors putting on a play that's touring around England. Already inept to start with, their production becomes increasingly worse as they continue on their tour. The play shows us their shaky dress rehearsal, then takes us backstage to show a calamitous performance partway through their run, before concluding with the absolute shambles of their production at their final stop. I admit, the fact that I was in the theater for a while myself is what makes me love this play so much. Still, it's loaded with clever slapstick, precision comic timing, and great sight gags that play well to any audience.

It was this physical side of the show that the Colorado Shakespeare Festival nailed particularly well in their production. In Act Two, which shows the silent chaos backstage on a reversed set, their crisp timing drew laughter from the audience so loud that you really couldn't even hear half of the great jokes that came from lines in the "play within a play" lining up with the chaotic action.

Though I wouldn't call any part of the production weak, their first act was... not quite as strong. A lot of track is laid in the opening of this play, setting up relationships, setting up the play within the play, preparing the context for what is to follow. The cast's pace seemed a bit slow here. In a hint of the greatness to come later, the biggest laughs in Act One revolved around a few moments of well executed physical comedy. The many clever lines of dialogue, by contrast, elicited only more sparse and polite chuckles.

Nevertheless, I still had a great time at the production. I've seen enough other fantastic plays over the years that Noises Off may no longer be the most fun I've had at the theater, but it remains the funniest thing I've seen at the theater. This production runs for a few more performances throughout the rest of the month, so if you live anywhere near Boulder, I'd definitely recommend picking up tickets.